Australia threatens court action against social media firms over under-16 ban

Insights

• eSafety is probing Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok for possible breaches three months after the under-16 ban took effect.
• Platforms face fines of up to $34 million per breach if they do not take reasonable steps to keep out underage users.
• The regulator reported repeated age-check attempts, delayed photo-based checks, limited age-inference and poor reporting pathways as major compliance gaps.
• eSafety said many children under 16 have likely created accounts by simply declaring they are 16 or older.
• Nearly one third of parents reported their under-16 child had at least one social media account after the ban, and two thirds said platforms had not asked the child’s age.
• The government is compiling evidence so the eSafety Commissioner can pursue Federal Court action and expects a decision on next steps by mid-year.